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Other Endowment merits
Ashwood Abbey – Bacchanal (• - •••••) Effect: They don’t all refer to it as the Bacchanal—certainly some Abbey hunters gleefully embrace the faux-pagan trappings of Saturnalian revelry, but most don’t. They might call it a party, salon, soiree, celebration, fête, festival, or even orgy. Some engage in restrained revelry (formalwear, golf claps, ice sculptures), while others check their restraint at the door and wade into the fray with naught but harlequin masks, Taser weapons and tumescent flesh. The advantage is the same regardless of the trappings, however. The Abbey hunters possess more than just money—they possess privilege, which can be spent in ways that money cannot. The Bacchanal is one such way, and the hunter with this Endowment can, once per story, hold a Grand Guignol party that buys her a number of small advantages. No roll is required to hold the party. Such is the pleasure of privilege; mere possession of this Endowment gives the hunter sway over high society. The number of guests that come to such a party is roughly equal to 20 times the dots possessed in this Endowment (three dots would then equal an approximate maximum of 60 attendees if the hunter desires it). The real advantage, though, is what the hunter can buy during and after the event. Before the player initiates the Bacchanal, double the dots in this Endowment: this is now a pool of points that can be spent on specific advantages (these advantages must be spent and secured before the event begins). The advantages that can be bought are as follows: * -Abbey Influence: By throwing a legendary affair, the Abbey hunter can purchase a Social bonus that can be used on other Abbey members. Each point spent confers a +1 bonus (max +5). This lasts for the remainder of the story. * -Famous Guests: Points can be spent to ensure the attendance of specific guests that possess the Fame Merit. The number of dots the guest has in the Fame Merit is the cost in points necessary to sway them to show. * -Sphere of Influence: Choose a personal or professional sphere (politicians, advertising, supermodels, etc.). The Abbey hunter gains a Social bonus with that group equal to points spent (max +5); the bonus lasts until the end of the story. Note, too, that the Storyteller can deny this advantage over groups he thinks are unlikely to show to the party (blue-collar plumbers’ union, the homeless and so forth). * -Tactical Advantage: Tactics performed by an Abbey cell at the event can gain tactical advantage, because they’ve set up the advantage beforehand (removable table legs as stakes, or furniture arranged to make prey’s movement difficult). The hunter can buy up to three bonus dice (one per point spent) that is gained for all secondary actors. The primary actor gains only the bonus afforded by those successes on the secondary rolls, however. * -Supernatural Sway: The hunter can purchase a bonus with a specific supernatural group—how this is “earned” should be reflected somewhat through roleplaying. Example: by torturing an infamous shapeshifter, the hunter buys influence among the vampire community that the shapeshifter long tormented. Or, by simply inviting a hedonist faction of witches, the hunter gains a bonus with that particular faction. The bonus purchased costs one point, and provides a +1 Social bonus (max +5). Bonus lasts for the remainder of the story. The Long Night - The Prayer (• - •••••) Effect: This isn’t a supernatural Endowment, though it may certainly seem to be. The hunters of the Long Night are driven by a very deep, very potent faith. This faith, as manifested in prayer, gives them a great deal of confidence and unity even (and perhaps especially) in the darkest hour. At the dawn of each day, provided the hunter prayed before sleep, a Long Night hunter with the Prayer Endowment begins with a pool equal to the dots purchased in this Merit. We’ll call these “Prayer Points.” The hunter can spend these points throughout the day in a number of ways: * -The hunter can spend prayer points as willpower points (reflexive). * -transfer 1 willpower point to another member of the cell, provided those hunters have dots in this Endowment. A transfer of one Willpower point costs one of his Prayer Points (reflexive). Note that the Prayer Points do not become Willpower points (as the above benefit) – the cost is for the transfer, not the transformation. It transfers already existing Willpower. * -to resist against mental domination for one turn—he can add his dots in this Endowment to any rolls or pools used to resist supernatural mental domination * -Ignore wound penalties for one turn Loyalists of Thule - Unearthed Secrets (• - •••••) Effect: The Indebted have a very loose but very potent network of information-sharing. This isn’t a group that suffers from a lot of infighting or paranoia; they share information, and they share it broadly. The more information one is willing to share in return, the higher he places himself on the chain of unearthed secrets. A hunter with this Endowment gains a benefit at the beginning of a story. He can, for free, gain a number of important “secrets” about the monsters (or about other hunters, where appropriate) equal to the dots possessed in this Merit. This is a great place for the Storyteller to seed new plot points and information, as well as for the Loyalist to learn information that is useful to previous stories. This Endowment also has a side benefit that can be used throughout a story, as well—it is, in effect, an “Occult Contacts” Merit. It works just like the Contacts Merit, except each dot is geared toward character types with occult specialties: “New Age store owners,” “Diviners” or “Vampire experts.” Network Zero - Monster Media (• - •••••) Each dot purchased in Monster Media allows a Network Zero hunter to upgrade one piece of technology (likely a recording device of some means) so that it becomes capable of capturing and identifying a monster in its true, exposed form on the accordant form of media. Network Zero - All-Seeing-Eye (• - •••••) Effect: Network Zero is best-served by the technology that they use to capture the supernatural, and this Merit speaks toward that purpose. For every dot purchased in this Merit, the hunter gains access to one normally-private stream of information, within reason (Storyteller’s discretion applies). The hunter might be able to access local ATM cameras, stop light cameras, the CCTV system at a local company, the RFID tracking map of the same company, etc. Each dot is representative of one such “stream” of information. Accessing that stream generally requires no roll, though it does likely require that the hunter be near a computer, or at least a capable device (phones with higher-end operating systems and browsers). A roll is only necessary when the hunter is using a locked computer or accessing a truly private information stream. Each dot can only apply to connected systems. If the hunter chooses “ATM cameras,” that dot only applies toward ATM cameras of a certain bank or machine brand—Bank of America’s ATM feeds don’t connect with Wachovia’s machines, and so two dots would be necessary to have access to both. Some restrictions do apply: the hunter cannot access supernaturally-held systems, for instance. If a series of vampire havens are guarded by CCTV, the hunter cannot gain easy access to those with this Merit. (Though the hunter may eventually be able to hack into those feeds, that would be the provenance of an extended roll, not this Merit.) Drawback: Every time the hunter connects to an information stream represented by this Endowment, the Storyteller should roll a die in private. If that die comes up a ‘1,’ then the hunter is caught. The hunter loses access to that information stream (at least temporarily), and is now on the radar for having hacked that system. Union - Your Friends and Neighbors (• - •••••) Effect: The Union’s weapons aren’t the guns or baseball bats or car batteries. The weapons of the Union are right there in the neighborhood. A hunter who knows his neighborhood and knows its inhabitants is a hunter armed for war against the monsters. This Endowment ensures that to be true. At the start of a game session, a hunter with this Endowment can choose one benefit for himself and his cell that will last the game session (though he can certainly carry it from session to session where appropriate): -Temporary Safehouse equal to the dots in this Endowment. He can split them however he wants across the Safehouse sub-Merits (Cache, Secrecy, Size, Traps). This might be a neighbor’s house, a business closed for remodeling or an old warehouse. -Grants a social roll bonus (equal to Endowment) with one local resident. He wants to use this bonus, though, he’d better be prepared to help that resident out in some way. Failure to do so means that not only can be not gain this benefit with that resident again, but it also means that dots in this Endowment become a Social penalty with that person until reparations are made. -the Endowment becomes an effective Allies Merit for the game session, devoted to some aspect of local life (volunteer fire dept, PTA, guardian angels, local cops, local store owners, etc.). -grants a bonus to any Drive rolls made in this neighborhood (he knows how to time the lights, he knows all the shortcuts, he knows where the cops sit, etc.).